This community descends from the Mesopotamian kingdoms, such as the Ancient Assyrians, Akkadians, Babylonians, that once ruled the area and formed powerful empires in the Fertile Crescent (prior to the Arab conquest of Iraq in the 6th century AD). Assyrian Christian heritage is as ancient as it comes. Assyrians converted to Christianity as early as the second century A.D., 1 century before the Roman empire made Christianity its official religion.
Assyrians are made up of 3 main categories of Christian groups, the Assyrian Church of the East, (founded in 33 A.D. by Thomas, Bortholemew and Thaddeus), the Chaldean Catholic Church (in communion with Rome) and the Syrian Orthodox Church among others.
The language spoken by modern Assyrians today is a mixture of Ancient Assyrian (Akkadian) infused with Aramaic (the language Jesus Christ spoke). Their numbers in Iraq are dwindling as an ongoing ethnic genocide (by various parties in Iraq) escalates so as to finally rid Iraq of its indigenous people, who have inhabited Iraq for over 6000 years and kept Christianity alive there since the dawn of Christianity itself.
If you have any comments and concerns, feel free to contact me at assyrianlife@gmail.com
